Wk. 11 Heinrich Himmler, Speech Before SS Group Leaders (1943)

Question 1

Heinrich Himmler, Speech Before SS Group Leaders (1943)

Answer 1

Heinrich Himmler, Speech Before SS Group Leaders (1943) – Heinrich Himmler (1900-1945) was a leading member of the Nazi party and, as Minister of Interior, oversaw the SS, the Gestapo, and the apparatus of the Holocaust. This speech, which he gave to the leaders of the SS in Posen, Poland on 4 October 1943, was among the first statements announcing the so-called Final Solution, the systematic extermination of the Jewish population.

How did Himmler understand the relationship between the Germans and other nationalities?

• He thinks that other nationalities hold importance only in the sense that they can do or provide something that will forward the German cause. He uses the example of the Russian woman to make his point.
  
  • “What happens to the Russians, what happens to the Czechs, is a matter of utter indifference to me. Such good blood of our own kind as there may be among the nations we shall acquire for ourselves, if necessary by taking away the children and bringing them up among us. Whether the other peoples live in comfort or perish of hunger interests me only in so far as we need them as slaves for our culture; apart from that it does not interest me. Whether or not 10,000 Russian women collapse from exhaustion while digging a tank ditch interests me only in so far as the tank ditch is completed for Germany.”

What should a German’s attitude toward them be?

• He believed in German superiority in every way.
  
  • “we must be honest, decent, loyal and friendly to members of our blood and to no one else.”
  • And that non-Germans are animals. “We Germans, who are the only people in the world who have a decent attitude to animals, will also adopt a decent attitude to these human animals, but it is a crime against our own blood to worry about them and to bring them ideals.” This dehumanization made it easier for the Germans to rationalize the atrocities that they committed to others, particularly the Jews.

How did he distinguish between the Jews and other non-German groups?

• He believed that Jews betrayed Germany in WWI with a conspiracy that they were sabotaging the German war effort.
  
  • “we still had Jews today in every town as secret saboteurs, agitators and trouble-mongers. We would now probably have reached the 1916/17 stage when Jews were still in the national body.”
  • “We had the moral right, we had the duty to our people, to destroy this people which wanted to destroy us.”

Why did he say this could not be spoken of publically?

• First, he knows the world would greatly disapprove, Second, to give up their ‘secret’ would give a heads-up to all uncaptured Jews to make their escape. Third, he knows that even among the populace of Germans, there is sympathy for the Jews because everyone seems to have at least one Jew who is a friend or with whom they hold respect – even if their overall perception of Jews is negative.
  
  • “It is one of those things which is easy to say. “The Jewish race is to be exterminated,” says every party member. “That’s clear, it’s part of our program, elimination of the Jews, extermination, right, we’ll do it.” And then they all come along, the eighty million good Germans, and each one has his decent Jew. Of course the others are swine, but this one is a first-class Jew. Of all those who talk like this, not one has watched, not one has stood up to it.”

POWERPOINT:

Himmler, Speech before SS Group Leaders

• What is his attitude towards Eastern Europeans (Slovenes, Czechs, Russians)?
  
  • Biologically or racially distinct from Germans (below Germans)
  • Their only value is what they can do for Germany or Germans
    
    • Otherwise, their fate is “indifferent”
    • They are effectively slaves for Germany, and their life doesn’t matter
  • They are “human animals”
    
    • Germans are good people, so they don’t mistreat animals
    • Identify and salvage “good German blood” from those populations
• This attitude towards other Europeans is very similar to the racial Imperialism we talked about in the 19th C (i.e. Ferry)
• How does he think Jews are different?
  
  • They’re worse than human animals: their existence is a threat to Germany
    
    • “Stabbed in the back” myth: Germany’s WWI effort was undermined by sabotage
  • Jews must be exterminated b/c of this threat
• Why does this have to be kept secret?
  
  • It’s not that anyone has a problem with the idea of exterminating the Jews
    
    • “It’s part of our program” – everybody knows and agrees with this
  • Good Germans agree with the idea, but they will want to make an exception
• What makes the SS man special?
  
  • They can see and do this and remain “decent”
  • They are “hard” because they are so devoted to Germany